16th International Conference on The Future of Asia

Born on March 13, 1957

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Lee Hye-min was appointed as Deputy Minister for FTA in March, 2008 with a portfolio overseeing Korea's FTA policy and negotiations and is leading the KOREA-EU FTA negotiations as Korea's chief negotiator since then.

From 2006 to 2008, he served as the Director-General and Deputy Chief negotiator for KOREA-US FTA, one of the historical trade agreements that Korea has concluded so far.

Deputy Minister Lee joined the Foreign Service in 1980. His overseas assignments have included Minister-Counsellor, Korean Permanent Delegation to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, in Paris (2004-2005) and Counsellor, Korean Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia (2002-2004). Earlier overseas assignments included Korean Embassy in the United States of America (1997-2000) as well as Korean Mission to the European Community in Brussels (1990-1993).

In Seoul, Deputy Minister Lee served as Director for International Security Affairs, Office of the President (1995-1996) and was in charge of bilateral trade relations with the United States and Canada as Director (2000-2002).

He holds two master's degrees in International Law from Seoul National University and in Public Law and Political Science from Université de Clairmont-Ferrand, France. He studied English Literature at Seoul National University.